Group aims to bring new life to Fall River port

Tuesday

Nov 26, 2013 at 12:01 AMNov 26, 2013 at 7:36 PM

In the spring of 2012, a group of mayors and other stakeholders from Fall River, New Bedford, Boston, Gloucester and Salem formed the Ports of Massachusetts Compact. On Monday night, they presented a draft of their proposals for the future of the state’s largest ports during a public meeting.

Jo C. Goode

In the spring of 2012, a group of mayors and other stakeholders from Fall River, New Bedford, Boston, Gloucester and Salem formed the Ports of Massachusetts Compact. On Monday night, they presented a draft of their proposals for the future of the state’s largest ports during a public meeting.

Titled the Ports of Massachusetts Strategic Plan, the goal is to guide the development of the ports for future investment, initiatives, planning and to improve coordination between the five ports.

The meeting, hosted by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation and the Ports of Massachusetts Compact and held at the New Bedford Free Public Library, concentrated on the revitalization of the Fall River and New Bedford ports.

The Fall River State Pier is in need of a number of repairs and improvement to access, and those two issues were the focus of the compact group, said Matthew Ciborowski, project manager with Massachusetts Department of Transportation.

“It really is about bringing people down to use the piers there,” Ciborowski said, “and one thing the city has really done is bringing in a pilot ferry service that’s going from Fall River to Newport and Block Island. We think there’s a market for that, and it would certainly bring people to access the piers.”

Ciborowski said MassDOT’s Route 79 project to remove the so-called “spaghetti ramps” will also improve access to the piers.

“Those two efforts hopefully will create a better environment to access the waterfront,” Ciborowski said, “But also the South Coast Rail station will be located by the waterfront and will bring a lot of activity there.”

Ciborowski said another recommendation to Fall River from the compact group was to focus long-term on industrial use, citing Weaver’s Cove and Brayton Point.

Fall River resident Brian Curt asked if any underwater surveys at the aging state pier to determine it was sound before they moved ahead with recommendations.

“Before you throw any money at it, you may want to check,” Curt said.

Ciborowski said in the process of drafting the strategic plan there were no underwater surveys of any of the ports and the compact group relied on data from the different municipalities.

Curt said regarding the proposed ferry service, it would create a parking issue since there is little parking in the area at this time.